Samurai District Walk
It was a nice sunny morning so we decided to go for a walk to one of the Samurai districts of the city. I took plenty of photos along the way so you can see some here.
Very close to where I’m staying is the old castle:
It used to be surrounded by a moat but now only a few pools remain. But they have some friendly carp:
Here is a statue of the Samurai Lord that used to live there:
We continued our walk via the fashion shopping area into the old Samurai area. Here we visited the site of an ancient Samurai House with an amazing garden:
There are coy carp, a waterfall and many trees and shrubs to be seen. The ropes you can see are to hold up the tree branches after heavy snow fall. A common sight in Japan where the trees are looked after because of the famous cherry blossom season that is nearly upon us.
Here is a view from inside the house:
The floor is covered with Tatami mats, one of the door panels is finely decorated with artwork and there are wood carvings above the door (not visible here).
Here is a display of the Samurai armour, a nice Bonsai tree decorating the home and a Samurai sword plus short sword:
The main gate and servant’s gate of a Samurai house:
The Samurai street:
Local houses in poor condition:
These houses are typical of many of the older houses in Kanazawa. If you look carefully you can see the wood is neglected and they never do any exterior maintenance. So every 50 years or so the houses are demolished and new ones built.
The house I am staying in is uncared-for too but it’s only around 30 years old so I am treating some of the wood to make it look like new 
It will be interesting to see what the locals think. Some of them never heard of DIY I think.
it looks like a very fascinating place to visit. If I understand correctly it’s kind of museum or people still live there?
BTW what about bonsai tree is it real one or plastic? (I’m asking as I didn’t thought that bonsai could blossom)
Comment by SensoVision — March 17, 2006 at 11:15 am
Hi Andy. Love your pics. Brings back memories of our going to Shinjiku park, one of our favorite places, and going to the castle on the Emperor’s public appearance day. I have some very old slides of the moat, etc.
I think Japan is a beautiful country. Used to love driving up into the hills, seeing the fabrics drying on racks outside the houses, the cherry blossoms in bloom everywhere. Remember seeing old houses like that also. So much to see and do there!
One of the funniest things I remember is trying to talk to older students on the streets downtown (they all studied English in school), and they’re saying, in perfect English, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak English.” We became friends with several college students; because social life was much more restricted back then, they used to bring their girls to our house. Sure has changed since then!
Comment by texbev — March 17, 2006 at 4:13 pm
The house is only for show so nobody lives there. The Samurais ended up quite poor I believe and Merchants who used to be near the bottom of the social scale, bought their properties. So this one used to be owned by a rich merchant.
I don’t know about the Bonsai tree, maybe it was a fake ???
texbev: your post made me laugh! I memorised “I can’t speak Japanese”. But I struggle to say it well enough to be understood
Comment by blogmaster — March 18, 2006 at 3:47 am